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Latest Cycling News for June 1, 2006

Edited by Anthony Tan

Comunidad Valenciana DS resigns

José Ignacio Labarta, assistant sports director of Comunidad Valenciana
and one of five arrested by the Spanish civil guard in relation to the
current doping investigation in Spain, voluntarily resigned from his post
as of yesterday.

Labarta, however, maintains his innocence in the 'Operacion Puerto' affair.
In statement from the team, his reasons for resigning were "to remove
any suspicion from the Comunidad Valenciana team and the people involved
in structure of the team, as well as to maintain a good reputation built
over the last two seasons."

In the same statement, the decision to break ties with Jose Ignacio Labarta
from the Comunidad Valenciana team avoids "manoeuvres [by the authorities]
to darken the sporting activities of Comunidad Valenciana, that have always
been made within ethical and sporting legalities."

Another fortnight off for Petacchi

After it was revealed Alessandro Petacchi fractured his kneecap on the
third stage of the Giro d'Italia, forcing
an early withdrawal, the Team Milram sprinter underwent further X-rays
at the San Rossore hospital in Pisa yesterday. There, Professor Mario
Spinelli, who carried out the diagnostic tests, told Petacchi his knee
will need to be kept under observation for another two weeks.

"They said to me the position of the bones are perfect, but there still
isn't sufficient new bone structure to shorten the recovery," Petacchi
explained in a team statement. "I will therefore have to remain immobile
for another two weeks and then undergo further X-rays in fifteen days'
time. I clearly hoped for better news, but as I already said, the important
thing is to have a full recovery so the remainder of my season is not
compromised."

Breschel back on the mend

Although abandoning last week's International Bayern Rundfahrt due to
recurring back problems, Team CSC's Matti Breschel says he's hopeful of
a more successful return to racing at the end of this week, with part
of his team heading Stateside to compete in the Commerce Bank Triple Crown.

The 21 year-old Dane broke his back in March with the Bayern Rundfahrt
Breschel's first race since the accident, which may have been too much
of a shock to his system: "My back started hurting and I had a talk with
sports director Dan Frost about it. We agreed that it wasn't worth risking
it so I abandoned," Breschel explained on team-csc.com.

"But now, I've been taking it easy for a couple of days, and I actually
think it's going quite well again. I think maybe my back just needs to
get used to being back in business again and it will be okay.

"I'm going to the States and then I'll just take one day at a time and
see how it goes," he continued, who, along with seven of his team-mates,
is doing the CSC Invitational, Lancaster Classics, Reading Classics and
Philadelphia Int. Championship in the period between June 3-11.

The rest of the team going to the United States is: Kasper Klostergaard,
Michael Blaudzun, Lars Michaelsen, Martin Pedersen, Andrea Peron, Bobby
Julich as well as Luke Roberts, who is fresh off his third place overall
in the Bayern Rundfahrt.

T-Mobile team for weekend

The T-Mobile Team is sending a six-man roster to this weekend's GP Triberg-Schwarzwald
in Germany and the GP Kanton Aargau in Switzerland. On Saturday, Linus
Gerdemann spearheads the magenta challenge in Germany's hilly Black Forest
region.

The talented young German rider gave a demonstration of his climbing
skills at the recent Volta a Catalunya where he finished sixth overall
on a tough parcours, and he won't be short of a challenge when he lines
up in Triberg on Saturday morning. The course takes the riders on seven
23.2 km loops, with a total 4,000 metres in elevation gain over a distance
of 162.4 km; this roughly equals the demands of a tough mountain stage
at the Tour de France.

Supporting Linus Gerdemann on Saturday are the experienced classics specialists
Andreas Klier and Steffen Wesemann, all-rounder Thomas Ziegler and sprinter
André Korff. Frantisek Rabon, fresh off riding the Giro all the way to
Milan, rounds out the T-Mobile roster.

On Sunday, following the GP Schwarzwald, the same six-man roster travels
south to the Swiss town of Gippingen, nearly 100 kilometres south of Triberg
for the GP Kanton Aargau. Steffen Wesemann, who lives in nearby Küttingen,
should have good memories of the 19.6 km race circuit and its two second
category climbs; he won the prestigious race back in 2000.

The T-Mobile Team start in Switzerland without any designated leader,
however, Andreas Klier, Thomas Ziegler and Linus Gerdemann are expected
to go into the race all guns blazing, as should naturalised Swiss Steffen
Wesemann. "We will wait to see how the race unfolds to work out our strategy
and tactic," said directeur-sportif Valerio Piva in a team statement.

Jeremy Vennell diary: A weekend of Dutch Hell

Before starting this story of these two races I will just try and explain
how unique racing in Holland really is from every other country.

Firstly, and possibly the most important factor in racing in the Netherlands
is that there is always wind! As soon as you drive over the border, the
trees start to sway. It doesn't matter if you are at the back or the front
of the peloton, everyone gets it and everyone has to battle with it all
day. Wind is fine if it is straight in your face or up your butt but the
wind in Holland is the devil wind straight out of hell, and will always
be trying its best to make it tough. When riders finally crack under the
strain, they let go of the rider's wheel in front and then the other riders
behind also get left behind with him. This normally happens when the wind
is coming from the side.

When the wind is coming from that direction, there is no shelter at
all except a tiny bit behind the rider in front. But the lucky ones will
be in the front in a diagonal line across the road, this means for a short
time you will get a rest from the wind as you rotate to the front and
then back along the line to the back. This way you only get a short spell
in the wind and then a respite from the effort (this is called an echelon).
The problem is the road is only so wide and the smaller the road, the
fewer riders can fit in the rotating line. The doomed riders that are
out of the line cannot sustain the effort of the other riders working
together and thus crack and fall off the back.

This is called riding in the gutter, and you are normally trying to
ride about an inch or less on the side of the road to get as much shelter
as possible from the rider in front who is also trying to do the same.
Things can get worse if you're really unlucky you can be behind a little
Italian rider that barely come up to your knees and gives about half the
slipstream as a big Dutchy. But being behind a Dutch rider can also be
tough because they have been riding in the gutter before they can talk,
making them very good at riding stupidly close to the edge of the road.

Ten Dam courted by ProTour teams

According to Laurens Ten Dam's agent, Olivier Onderbeke, the 25 year-old
Dutchman is currently being courted by several ProTour teams. Ten Dam,
currently riding for Unibet.com, was the best non-ProTour athlete in the
Amstel Gold Race and La Flčche Wallonne, where he finished 42nd and 55th
respectively.

Onderbeke adds Ten Dam wishes to ride one of the three Grand Tours in
2007, and his Unibet.com team hopes to retain the rider's services in
the coming years, with the team looking towards a ProTour licence.